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List of Roman deities

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The Roman deities most widely known today are those the Romans identified with Greek counterparts (see interpretatio graeca), integrating Greek myths, iconography, and sometimes religious practices into Roman culture, including Latin literature, Roman art, and religious life as it was experienced throughout the Empire. Many of the Romans' own gods remain obscure, known only by name and sometimes function, through inscriptions and texts that are often fragmentary. This is particularly true of those gods belonging to the archaic religion of the Romans dating back to the era of kings, the so-called "religion of Numa", which was perpetuated or revived over the centuries. Some archaic deities have Italic or Etruscan counterparts, as identified both by ancient sources and by modern scholars. Throughout the Empire, the deities of peoples in the provinces were given new theological interpretations in light of functions or attributes they shared with Roman deities.

An extensive alphabetical list follows a survey of theological groups as constructed by the Romans themselves.[1] For the cult pertaining to deified Roman emperors (divi), see Imperial cult.

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Interpretatio graeca

Interpretatio graeca

Interpretatio graeca or "interpretation by means of Greek [models]" is a discourse used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures; a comparative methodology using ancient Greek religious concepts and practices, deities, and myths, equivalencies, and shared characteristics.

Greek mythology

Greek mythology

A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece, and to better understand the nature of myth-making itself.

Ancient Greek art

Ancient Greek art

Ancient Greek art stands out among that of other ancient cultures for its development of naturalistic but idealized depictions of the human body, in which largely nude male figures were generally the focus of innovation. The rate of stylistic development between about 750 and 300 BC was remarkable by ancient standards, and in surviving works is best seen in sculpture. There were important innovations in painting, which have to be essentially reconstructed due to the lack of original survivals of quality, other than the distinct field of painted pottery.

Latin literature

Latin literature

Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literature would flourish for the next six centuries. The classical era of Latin literature can be roughly divided into the following periods: Early Latin literature, The Golden Age, The Imperial Period and Late Antiquity.

Religion in ancient Rome

Religion in ancient Rome

Religion in ancient Rome consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by the people of Rome as well as those who were brought under its rule.

Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus as the first Roman emperor to the military anarchy of the 3rd century, it was a Principate with Italia as the metropole of its provinces and the city of Rome as its sole capital. The Empire was later ruled by multiple emperors who shared control over the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. The city of Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until AD 476 when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinople following the capture of the Western capital of Ravenna by the Germanic barbarians. The adoption of Christianity as the state church of the Roman Empire in AD 380 and the fall of the Western Roman Empire to Germanic kings conventionally marks the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Because of these events, along with the gradual Hellenization of the Eastern Roman Empire, historians distinguish the medieval Roman Empire that remained in the Eastern provinces as the Byzantine Empire.

Roman Kingdom

Roman Kingdom

The Roman Kingdom was the earliest period of Roman history when the city and its territory were ruled by kings. According to oral accounts, the Roman Kingdom began with the city's founding c. 753 BC, with settlements around the Palatine Hill along the river Tiber in central Italy, and ended with the overthrow of the kings and the establishment of the Republic c. 509 BC.

Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius was the legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus after a one-year interregnum. He was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political institutions are attributed to him, such as the Roman calendar, Vestal Virgins, the cult of Mars, the cult of Jupiter, the cult of Romulus, and the office of pontifex maximus.

Italic peoples

Italic peoples

The Italic peoples were an ethnolinguistic group identified by their use of Italic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family.

Etruscan religion

Etruscan religion

Etruscan religion comprises a set of stories, beliefs, and religious practices of the Etruscan civilization, heavily influenced by the mythology of ancient Greece, and sharing similarities with concurrent Roman mythology and religion. As the Etruscan civilization was gradually assimilated into the Roman Republic from the 4th century BC, the Etruscan religion and mythology were partially incorporated into ancient Roman culture, following the Roman tendency to absorb some of the local gods and customs of conquered lands. The first attestations of an Etruscan religion can be traced back to the Villanovan culture.

Roman province

Roman province

The Roman provinces were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was ruled by a Roman appointed as governor.

Roman emperor

Roman emperor

The Roman emperor was the ruler and monarchial head of state of the Roman Empire during the imperial period. The emperors used a variety of different titles throughout history. Often when a given Roman is described as becoming "emperor" in English it reflects his taking of the title augustus. Another title often used was caesar, used for heirs-apparent, and imperator, originally a military honorific. Early emperors also used the title princeps civitatis. Emperors frequently amassed republican titles, notably princeps senatus, consul, and pontifex maximus.

Titles and honorifics

Certain honorifics and titles could be shared by different gods, divine personifications, demi-gods and divi (deified mortals).

Augustus and Augusta

Augustus, "the elevated or august one" (masculine form) is an honorific and title awarded to Octavian in recognition of his unique status, the extraordinary range of his powers, and the apparent divine approval of his principate. After his death and deification, the title was awarded to each of his successors. It also became a near ubiquitous title or honour for various minor local deities, including the Lares Augusti of local communities, and obscure provincial deities such as the North African Marazgu Augustus. This extension of an Imperial honorific to major and minor deities of Rome and her provinces is considered a ground-level feature of Imperial cult.

Augusta, the feminine form, is an honorific and title associated with the development and dissemination of Imperial cult as applied to Roman Empresses, whether living, deceased or deified as divae. The first Augusta was Livia, wife of Octavian, and the title is then shared by various state goddesses including Bona Dea, Ceres, Juno, Minerva, and Ops; by many minor or local goddesses; and by the female personifications of Imperial virtues such as Pax and Victoria.

Bonus and Bona

The epithet Bonus, "the Good," is used in Imperial ideology with abstract deities such as Bona Fortuna ("Good Fortune"), Bona Mens ("Good Thinking" or "Sound Mind"), and Bona Spes ("Valid Hope," perhaps to be translated as "Optimism"). During the Republic, the epithet may be most prominent with Bona Dea, "the Good Goddess" whose rites were celebrated by women. Bonus Eventus, "Good Outcome", was one of Varro's twelve agricultural deities, and later represented success in general.[2]

Roman Isis in black and white marble, from the time of Apuleius
Roman Isis in black and white marble, from the time of Apuleius

Caelestis

From the middle Imperial period, the title Caelestis, "Heavenly" or "Celestial" is attached to several goddesses embodying aspects of a single, supreme Heavenly Goddess. The Dea Caelestis was identified with the constellation Virgo ("The Virgin"), who holds the divine balance of justice. In the Metamorphoses of Apuleius,[3] the protagonist Lucius prays to the Hellenistic Egyptian goddess Isis as Regina Caeli, "Queen of Heaven", who is said to manifest also as Ceres, "the original nurturing parent"; Heavenly Venus (Venus Caelestis); the "sister of Phoebus", that is, Diana or Artemis as she is worshipped at Ephesus; or Proserpina as the triple goddess of the underworld. Juno Caelestis was the Romanised form of the Carthaginian Tanit.[4]

Grammatically, the form Caelestis can also be a masculine word, but the equivalent function for a male deity is usually expressed through syncretization with Caelus, as in Caelus Aeternus Iuppiter, "Jupiter the Eternal Sky."

Invictus

Dedication made to the Deus Invictus by a Roman legionary in Brigetio, Pannonia[5]
Dedication made to the Deus Invictus by a Roman legionary in Brigetio, Pannonia[5]

Invictus ("Unconquered, Invincible") was in use as a divine epithet by the early 3rd century BC. In the Imperial period, it expressed the invincibility of deities embraced officially, such as Jupiter, Mars, Hercules, and Sol. On coins, calendars, and other inscriptions, Mercury, Saturn, Silvanus, Fons, Serapis, Sabazius, Apollo, and the Genius are also found as Invictus. Cicero considers it a normal epithet for Jupiter, in regard to whom it is probably a synonym for Omnipotens. It is also used in the Mithraic mysteries.[6]

Mater and Pater

Mater ("Mother") was an honorific that respected a goddess's maternal authority and functions, and not necessarily "motherhood" per se. Early examples included Terra Mater (Mother Earth) and the Mater Larum (Mother of the Lares). Vesta, a goddess of chastity usually conceived of as a virgin, was honored as Mater. A goddess known as Stata Mater was a compital deity credited with preventing fires in the city.[7]

From the middle Imperial era, the reigning Empress becomes Mater castrorum et senatus et patriae, the symbolic Mother of military camps, the senate, and the fatherland. The Gallic and Germanic cavalry (auxilia) of the Roman Imperial army regularly set up altars to the "Mothers of the Field" (Campestres, from campus, "field," with the title Matres or Matronae).[8] See also Magna Mater (Great Mother) following.

Gods were called Pater ("Father") to signify their preeminence and paternal care, and the filial respect owed to them. Pater was found as an epithet of Dis, Jupiter, Mars, and Liber, among others.

Magna Mater

"The Great Mother" was a title given to Cybele in her Roman cult. Some Roman literary sources accord the same title to Maia and other goddesses.[9]

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Personification

Personification

Personification is the representation of a thing or abstraction as a person. In the arts, many things are commonly personified. These include numerous types of places, especially cities, countries, and continents, elements of the natural world such as the months or four seasons, four elements, four cardinal winds, five senses, and abstractions such as virtues, especially the four cardinal virtues and seven deadly sins, the nine Muses, or death.

Grammatical gender

Grammatical gender

In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns inherently carry one value of the grammatical category called gender; the values present in a given language are called the genders of that language.

Principate

Principate

The Principate is the name sometimes given to the first period of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the so-called Dominate.

Africa (Roman province)

Africa (Roman province)

Africa was a Roman province on the northern African coast that was established in 146 BC following the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeria, and the coast of western Libya along the Gulf of Sirte. The territory was originally inhabited by Berber people, known in Latin as Mauri indigenous to all of North Africa west of Egypt; in the 9th century BC, Phoenicians built settlements along the Mediterranean Sea to facilitate shipping, of which Carthage rose to dominance in the 8th century BC until its conquest by the Roman Republic.

Livia

Livia

Livia Drusilla was Roman empress from 27 BC to AD 14 as the wife of Emperor Caesar Augustus. She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14.

Bona Dea

Bona Dea

Bona Dea was a goddess in ancient Roman religion. She was associated with chastity and fertility in Roman women, healing, and the protection of the state and people of Rome. According to Roman literary sources, she was brought from Magna Graecia at some time during the early or middle Republic, and was given her own state cult on the Aventine Hill.

Ceres (mythology)

Ceres (mythology)

In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres". Her seven-day April festival of Cerealia included the popular Ludi Ceriales. She was also honoured in the May lustratio of the fields at the Ambarvalia festival, at harvest-time, and during Roman marriages and funeral rites. She is usually depicted as a mature woman.

Juno (mythology)

Juno (mythology)

Juno was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counsellor of the state. She was equated to Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology and a goddess of love and marriage. A daughter of Saturn, she was the sister and wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona and Juventas. Like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock. Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina ("Queen") and was a member of the Capitoline Triad, centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, and also including Jupiter, and Minerva, goddess of wisdom.

Minerva

Minerva

Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Romans equated her with the Greek goddess Athena. Minerva is one of the three Roman deities in the Capitoline Triad, along with Jupiter and Juno.

Ops

Ops

In ancient Roman religion, Ops or Opis was a fertility deity and earth goddess of Sabine origin. Her equivalent in Greek mythology was Rhea.

Victoria (mythology)

Victoria (mythology)

In ancient Roman religion Victoria was the deified personification of victory. She first appears during the first Punic War, seemingly as a Romanised re-naming of Nike, the goddess of victory associated with Rome's Greek allies in the Greek mainland and in Magna Graecia. Thereafter she comes to symbolise Rome's eventual hegemony and right to rule. She is a deified abstraction, entitled to cult but unlike Nike, she has virtually no mythology of her own.

Collectives

Even in invocations, which generally required precise naming, the Romans sometimes spoke of gods as groups or collectives rather than naming them as individuals. Some groups, such as the Camenae and Parcae, were thought of as a limited number of individual deities, even though the number of these might not be given consistently in all periods and all texts. The following groups, however, are numberless collectives.

Spatial tripartition

Varro grouped the gods broadly into three divisions of heaven, earth, and underworld:

  • di superi, the gods above or heavenly gods, whose altars were designated as altaria.[10]
  • di terrestres, "terrestrial gods," whose altars were designated as arae.
  • di inferi, the gods below, that is, the gods of the underworld, infernal or chthonic gods, whose altars were foci, fire pits or specially constructed hearths.

More common is a dualistic contrast between superi and inferi.

Di indigetes and novensiles

The di indigetes were thought by Georg Wissowa to be Rome's indigenous deities, in contrast to the di novensides or novensiles, "newcomer gods". No ancient source, however, poses this dichotomy, which is not generally accepted among scholars of the 21st century. The meaning of the epithet indiges (singular) has no scholarly consensus, and noven may mean "nine" (novem) rather than "new".

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Camenae

Camenae

In Roman mythology, the Camenae were originally goddesses of childbirth, wells and fountains, and also prophetic deities.

Parcae

Parcae

In ancient Roman religion and myth, the Parcae were the female personifications of destiny who directed the lives of humans and gods. They are often called the Fates in English, and their Greek equivalent were the Moirai. They did not control a person's actions except when they are born, when they die, and how much they suffer.

Di inferi

Di inferi

The di inferi or dii inferi were a shadowy collective of ancient Roman deities associated with death and the underworld. The epithet inferi is also given to the mysterious Manes, a collective of ancestral spirits. The most likely origin of the word Manes is from manus or manis, meaning "good" or "kindly," which was a euphemistic way to speak of the inferi so as to avert their potential to harm or cause fear.

Chthonic

Chthonic

The word chthonic, or chthonian, is derived from the Ancient Greek word χθών, "khthon", meaning earth or soil. It translates more directly from χθόνιος or "in, under, or beneath the earth" which can be differentiated from Γῆ, or "ge", which speaks to the living surface of land on the earth. In Greek, chthonic is a descriptive word for things relating to the underworld and can be used in the context of chthonic gods, chthonic rituals, chthonic cults, and more. This is as compared to the more commonly referenced Olympic gods and their associated rites and cults. Olympic gods are understood to reference that which exists above the earth, particularly in the sky. Gods that are related to agriculture are also considered to have chthonic associations as planting and growing takes place in part under the earth.

Fire pit

Fire pit

A fire pit or a fire hole can vary from a pit dug in the ground to an elaborate gas burning structure of stone, brick, and metal. The defining feature of fire pits is that they are designed to contain fire and prevent it from spreading.

Di indigetes

Di indigetes

In classical Latin, the epithet Indiges, singular in form, is applied to Sol (Sol Indiges) and to Jupiter of Lavinium, later identified with Aeneas. One theory holds that it means the "speaker within", and stems from before the recognition of divine persons. Another, which the Oxford Classical Dictionary holds more likely, is that it means "invoked" in the sense of "pointing at", as in the related word indigitamenta.

Georg Wissowa

Georg Wissowa

Georg Otto August Wissowa was a German classical philologist born in Neudorf, near Breslau.

Novensiles

Novensiles

In ancient Roman religion, the dii Novensiles or Novensides are collective deities of obscure significance found in inscriptions, prayer formulary, and both ancient and early-Christian literary texts.

Roman god lists

Triads

Groupings of twelve

Lectisternium of 217 BC

A lectisternium is a banquet for the gods, at which they appear as images seated on couches, as if present and participating. In describing the lectisternium of the Twelve Great gods in 217 BC, the Augustan historian Livy places the deities in gender-balanced pairs:[13]

Divine male-female complements such as these, as well as the anthropomorphic influence of Greek mythology, contributed to a tendency in Latin literature to represent the gods as "married" couples or (as in the case of Venus and Mars) lovers.

Di Consentes on an altar
Di Consentes on an altar

Dii Consentes

Varro uses the name Dii Consentes for twelve deities whose gilded images stood in the forum. These were also placed in six male-female pairs.[14] Although individual names are not listed, they are assumed to be the deities of the lectisternium. A fragment from Ennius, within whose lifetime the lectisternium occurred, lists the same twelve deities by name, though in a different order from that of Livy: Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercurius, Jove, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo.[15]

The Dii Consentes are sometimes seen as the Roman equivalent of the Greek Olympians. The meaning of Consentes is subject to interpretation, but is usually taken to mean that they form a council or consensus of deities.

Di Flaminales

The three Roman deities cultivated by major flamens[16]

Twelve Roman deities attended by the minor flamens

Di selecti

Varro[18] gives a list of twenty principal gods of Roman religion:

Sabine gods

Varro, who was himself of Sabine origin, gives a list of Sabine gods who were adopted by the Romans:[19]

Livia, wife of Augustus, dressed as the goddess Ops.
Livia, wife of Augustus, dressed as the goddess Ops.

Elsewhere, Varro claims Sol Indiges – who had a sacred grove at Lavinium – as Sabine but at the same time equates him with Apollo.[23][24] Of those listed, he writes, "several names have their roots in both languages, as trees that grow on a property line creep into both fields. Saturn, for instance, can be said to have another origin here, and so too Diana."[25]

Varro makes various claims for Sabine origins throughout his works, some more plausible than others, and his list should not be taken at face value.[26] But the importance of the Sabines in the early cultural formation of Rome is evidenced, for instance, by the bride abduction of the Sabine women by Romulus's men, and in the Sabine ethnicity of Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome, to whom are attributed many of Rome's religious and legal institutions.[27] Varro, however, says that the altars to most of these gods were established at Rome by King Tatius as the result of a vow (votum).[28]

Indigitamenta

The indigitamenta are deities known only or primarily as a name; they may be minor entities, or epithets of major gods. Lists of deities were kept by the College of Pontiffs to assure that the correct names were invoked for public prayers. The books of the Pontiffs are lost, known only through scattered passages in Latin literature. The most extensive lists are provided by the Church Fathers who sought systematically to debunk Roman religion while drawing on the theological works of Varro, also surviving only in quoted or referenced fragments. W.H. Roscher collated the standard modern list of indigitamenta,[29] though other scholars may differ with him on some points.

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Archaic Triad

Archaic Triad

The Archaic Triad is a hypothetical divine triad, consisting of the three allegedly original deities worshipped on the Capitoline Hill in Rome: Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus. This structure was no longer clearly detectable in later times, and only traces of it have been identified from various literary sources and other testimonies. Many scholars dispute the validity of this identification.

Jupiter (mythology)

Jupiter (mythology)

Jupiter, also known as Jove, is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religion and mythology. Jupiter was the chief deity of Roman state religion throughout the Republican and Imperial eras, until Christianity became the dominant religion of the Empire. In Roman mythology, he negotiates with Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, to establish principles of Roman religion such as offering, or sacrifice.

Mars (mythology)

Mars (mythology)

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Mars was the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was the son of Jupiter and Juno, and was pre-eminent among the Roman army's military gods. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him, and in October, which began the season for military campaigning and ended the season for farming.

Capitoline Triad

Capitoline Triad

The Capitoline Triad was a group of three deities who were worshipped in ancient Roman religion in an elaborate temple on Rome's Capitoline Hill. It comprised Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The triad held a central place in the public religion of Rome.

Juno (mythology)

Juno (mythology)

Juno was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counsellor of the state. She was equated to Hera, queen of the gods in Greek mythology and a goddess of love and marriage. A daughter of Saturn, she was the sister and wife of Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Vulcan, Bellona and Juventas. Like Hera, her sacred animal was the peacock. Her Etruscan counterpart was Uni, and she was said to also watch over the women of Rome. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, Juno was called Regina ("Queen") and was a member of the Capitoline Triad, centered on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, and also including Jupiter, and Minerva, goddess of wisdom.

Minerva

Minerva

Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Romans equated her with the Greek goddess Athena. Minerva is one of the three Roman deities in the Capitoline Triad, along with Jupiter and Juno.

Aventine Triad

Aventine Triad

The Aventine Triad is a modern term for the joint cult of the Roman deities Ceres, Liber and Libera. The cult was established ca. 493 BC within a sacred district (templum) on or near the Aventine Hill, traditionally associated with the Roman plebs. Later accounts describe the temple building and rites as "Greek" in style. Some modern historians describe the Aventine Triad as a plebeian parallel and self-conscious antithesis to the Archaic Triad of Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus and the later Capitoline Triad of Jupiter, Minerva and Juno. The Aventine Triad, temple and associated ludi served as a focus of plebeian identity, sometimes in opposition to Rome's original ruling elite, the patricians.

Ceres (mythology)

Ceres (mythology)

In ancient Roman religion, Ceres was a goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. She was originally the central deity in Rome's so-called plebeian or Aventine Triad, then was paired with her daughter Proserpina in what Romans described as "the Greek rites of Ceres". Her seven-day April festival of Cerealia included the popular Ludi Ceriales. She was also honoured in the May lustratio of the fields at the Ambarvalia festival, at harvest-time, and during Roman marriages and funeral rites. She is usually depicted as a mature woman.

Liber

Liber

In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Liber, also known as Liber Pater, was a god of viticulture and wine, male fertility and freedom. He was a patron deity of Rome's plebeians and was part of their Aventine Triad. His festival of Liberalia became associated with free speech and the rights attached to coming of age. His cult and functions were increasingly associated with Romanised forms of the Greek Dionysus/Bacchus, whose mythology he came to share.

Lectisternium

Lectisternium

The lectisternium was an ancient Roman propitiatory ceremony, consisting of a meal offered to gods and goddesses. The word derives from lectum sternere, "to spread a couch." The deities were represented by their busts or statues, or by portable figures of wood, with heads of bronze, wax or marble. It has also been suggested that the divine images were bundles of sacred herbs tied together in the form of a head, covered by a waxen mask so as to resemble a kind of bust, rather like the straw figures called Argei. A couch (lectus) was prepared by draping it with fabric. The figures or sacred objects pertaining to the deity were laid upon it. Each couch held a pair of deities, sometimes male with female equivalent. If the image was anthropomorphic, the left arms were rested on a cushion (pulvinus) in the attitude of reclining to eat, whence the couch itself was often called pulvinar) The couches were set out in the open street, or a temple forecourt, or in the case of ludi, in the pulvinar or viewing box, and a meal was served on a table before the couch.

Augustan literature (ancient Rome)

Augustan literature (ancient Rome)

Augustan literature refers to the pieces of Latin literature that were written during the reign of Caesar Augustus, the first Roman emperor. In literary histories of the first part of the 20th century and earlier, Augustan literature was regarded along with that of the Late Republic as constituting the Golden Age of Latin literature, a period of stylistic classicism.

Livy

Livy

Titus Livius, known in English as Livy, was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled Ab Urbe Condita, ''From the Founding of the City'', covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in 753 BC through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own lifetime. He was on familiar terms with members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and a friend of Augustus, whose young grandnephew, the future emperor Claudius, he exhorted to take up the writing of history.

Alphabetical list

A

B

A Bacchus from Roman Spain, 2nd century
A Bacchus from Roman Spain, 2nd century
  • Bacchus, god of wine, sensual pleasures, and truth, originally a cult title for the Greek Dionysus and identified with the Roman Liber.
  • Bellona or Duellona, war goddess.
  • Bona Dea, the "women's goddess"[34] with functions pertaining to fertility, healing, and chastity.
  • Bonus Eventus, divine personification of "Good Outcome".
  • Bubona, goddess of cattle.

C

  • Caca, an archaic fire goddess and "proto-Vesta";[35] the sister of Cacus.
  • Cacus, originally an ancient god of fire, later regarded as a giant.
  • Caelus, god of the sky before Jupiter.
  • Camenae, goddesses with various attributes including fresh water, prophecy, and childbirth. There were four of them: Carmenta, Egeria, Antevorta, and Postvorta.
  • Cardea, goddess of the hinge (cardo), identified by Ovid with Carna (below)
  • Carmenta, goddess of childbirth and prophecy, and assigned a flamen minor. The leader of the Camenae.
  • Carmentes, two goddesses of childbirth: Antevorta and Postvorta or Porrima, future and past.
  • Carna, goddess who preserved the health of the heart and other internal organs.
  • Ceres, goddess of the harvest and mother of Proserpina, and one of the Dii Consentes. The Roman equivalent of Demeter [Greek goddess].
  • Clementia, goddess of forgiveness and mercy.
  • Cloacina, goddess who presided over the system of sewers in Rome; identified with Venus.
  • Concordia, goddess of agreement, understanding, and marital harmony.
  • Consus, chthonic god protecting grain storage.
  • Cupid, Roman god of love. The son of Venus, and equivalent to Greek Eros.
  • Cura, personification of care and concern who according to a single source[36] created humans from clay.
  • Cybele, an imported tutelary goddess often identified with Magna Mater

D

  • Dea Dia, goddess of growth.
  • Dea Tacita ("The Silent Goddess"), a goddess of the dead; later equated with the earth goddess Larenta.
  • Dea Tertiana and Dea Quartana, the sister goddesses of tertian and quartan fevers. Presumably daughters or sisters of Dea Febris.
  • Decima, minor goddess and one of the Parcae (Roman equivalent of the Moirai). The measurer of the thread of life, her Greek equivalent was Lachesis.
Diana Nemorensis on a denarius
Diana Nemorensis on a denarius
  • Devera or Deverra, goddess who ruled over the brooms used to purify temples in preparation for various worship services, sacrifices and celebrations; she protected midwives and women in labor.
  • Diana, goddess of the hunt, the moon, virginity, and childbirth, twin sister of Apollo and one of the Dii Consentes.
  • Diana Nemorensis, local version of Diana. The Roman equivalent of Artemis [Greek goddess]
  • Discordia, personification of discord and strife. The Roman equivalent of Eris [Greek goddess]
  • Dius Fidius, god of oaths, associated with Jupiter.
  • Di inferi, deities associated with death and the underworld.
  • Disciplina, personification of discipline.
  • Dis Pater or Dispater, god of wealth and the underworld; perhaps a translation of Greek Plouton (Pluto).

E

The Gallo-Roman horse goddess Epona
The Gallo-Roman horse goddess Epona
  • Egeria, water nymph or goddess, later considered one of the Camenae.
  • Empanda or Panda, a goddess whose temple never closed to those in need.
  • Epona, Gallo-Roman goddess of horses and horsemanship, usually assumed to be of Celtic origin.

F

  • Falacer, obscure god. He was assigned a minor flamen.
  • Fama, goddess of fame and rumor.
  • Fascinus, phallic god who protected from invidia (envy) and the evil eye.
  • Fauna, goddess of prophecy, but perhaps a title of other goddesses such as Maia.
  • Faunus, god of flocks.
  • Faustitas, goddess who protected herd and livestock.
  • Febris, goddess of fevers with the power to cause or prevent fevers and malaria. Accompanied by Dea Tertiana and Dea Quartiana.
  • Februus, god of Etruscan origin for whom the month of February was named; concerned with purification
  • Fecunditas, personification of fertility.
  • Felicitas, personification of good luck and success.
  • Ferentina, patron goddess of the city Ferentinum, Latium, protector of the Latin commonwealth.
  • Feronia, goddess concerned with wilderness, plebeians, freedmen, and liberty in a general sense. She was also an Underworld goddess.
  • Fides, personification of loyalty.
  • Flora, goddess of flowers, was assigned a flamen minor.
  • Fornax, goddess probably conceived of to explain the Fornacalia, "Oven Festival."
  • Fontus or Fons, god of wells and springs.
  • Fortuna, goddess of fortune.
  • Fufluns, god of wine, natural growth and health. He was adopted from Etruscan religion.
  • Fulgora, personification of lightning.
  • Furrina, goddess whose functions are mostly unknown, but in archaic times important enough to be assigned a flamen.

G

  • Genius, the tutelary spirit or divinity of each individual
  • Gratiae, Roman term for the Charites or Graces.

H

Roman statue of the infant Hercules strangling a snake
Roman statue of the infant Hercules strangling a snake
  • Hercules, god of strength, whose worship was derived from the Greek hero Heracles but took on a distinctly Roman character.
  • Hermaphroditus, an androgynous Greek god whose mythology was imported into Latin literature.
  • Honos, a divine personification of honor.
  • Hora, the wife of Quirinus.

I

  • Indiges, the deified Aeneas.
  • Intercidona, minor goddess of childbirth; invoked to keep evil spirits away from the child; symbolised by a cleaver.
  • Inuus, god of fertility and sexual intercourse, protector of livestock.
  • Invidia, goddess of envy and wrongdoing.

J

A janiform sculpture, perhaps of Janus
A janiform sculpture, perhaps of Janus
Punishment of Ixion: in the center is Mercury holding the caduceus and on the right Juno sits on her throne. Behind her Iris stands and gestures. On the left is Vulcan (blond figure) standing behind the wheel, manning it, with Ixion already tied to it. Nephele sits at Mercury's feet; a Roman fresco from the eastern wall of the triclinium in the House of the Vettii, Pompeii, Fourth Style (60-79 AD).
Punishment of Ixion: in the center is Mercury holding the caduceus and on the right Juno sits on her throne. Behind her Iris stands and gestures. On the left is Vulcan (blond figure) standing behind the wheel, manning it, with Ixion already tied to it. Nephele sits at Mercury's feet; a Roman fresco from the eastern wall of the triclinium in the House of the Vettii, Pompeii, Fourth Style (60-79 AD).
  • Janus, double-faced or two-headed god of beginnings and endings and of doors.
  • Juno, Queen of the gods, goddess of matrimony, and one of the Dii Consentes. Equivalent to Greek Hera.
  • Jupiter, King of the gods, god of storms, lightning, sky, and one of the Dii Consentes; was assigned a flamen maior. Equivalent to Greek Zeus.
  • Justitia, goddess of justice.
  • Juturna, goddess of fountains, wells, and springs.
  • Juventas, goddess of youth.

L

  • Lares, household gods.
  • Latona, goddess of light.
  • Laverna, patroness of thieves, con men and charlatans.
  • Lemures, the malevolent dead.
  • Levana, goddess of the rite through which fathers accepted newborn babies as their own.
  • Letum, personification of death.
  • Liber, a god of male fertility, viniculture and freedom, assimilated to Roman Bacchus and Greek Dionysus.
  • Libera, Liber's female equivalent, assimilated to Roman Proserpina and Greek Persephone.
  • Liberalitas, goddess or personification of generosity.
  • Libertas, goddess or personification of freedom.
  • Libitina, goddess of death, corpses and funerals.
  • Lua, goddess to whom soldiers sacrificed captured weapons, probably a consort of Saturn.
  • Lucifer, god of the morning star
  • Lucina, goddess of childbirth, but often as an aspect of Juno.
  • Luna, goddess of the moon.
  • Lupercus, god of shepherds and wolves; as the god of the Lupercalia, his identity is obscure, but he is sometimes identified with the Greek god Pan.
  • Lympha, often plural lymphae, a water deity assimilated to the Greek nymphs.

M

Capitoline Triad of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva
Capitoline Triad of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva
  • Mana Genita, goddess of infant mortality
  • Manes, the souls of the dead who came to be seen as household deities.
  • Mania, the consort of the Etruscan underworld god Mantus, and perhaps to be identified with the tenebrous Mater Larum; not to be confused with the Greek Maniae.
  • Mantus, an Etruscan god of the dead and ruler of the underworld.
  • Mars, god of war and father of Romulus, the founder of Rome; one of the Archaic Triad assigned a flamen maior; lover of Venus; one of the Dii Consentes. Greek equivalent-Ares.
  • Mater Matuta, goddess of dawn and childbirth, patroness of mariners.
  • Meditrina, goddess of healing, introduced to account for the festival of Meditrinalia.
  • Mefitis or Mephitis, goddess and personification of poisonous gases and volcanic vapours.
  • Mellona or Mellonia, goddess of bees and bee-keeping.
  • Mena or Mene, goddess of fertility and menstruation.
  • Mercury, messenger of the gods and bearer of souls to the underworld, and one of the Dii Consentes. Roman counterpart of the Greek god Hermes.
  • Minerva, goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industries and trades, and one of the Dii Consentes. Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Athena.
  • Mithras, god worshipped in the Roman empire; popular with soldiers.
  • Molae, daughters of Mars, probably goddesses of grinding of the grain.
  • Moneta, minor goddess of memory, equivalent to the Greek Mnemosyne. Also used as an epithet of Juno.
  • Mors, personification of death and equivalent of the Greek Thanatos.
  • Morta, minor goddess of death and one of the Parcae (Roman equivalent of the Moirai). The cutter of the thread of life, her Greek equivalent was Atropos.
  • Murcia or Murtia, a little-known goddess who was associated with the myrtle, and in other sources was called a goddess of sloth and laziness (both interpretations arising from false etymologies of her name). Later equated with Venus in the form of Venus Murcia.
  • Mutunus Tutunus, a phallic god.

N

Neptune velificans on a 3rd-century mosaic
Neptune velificans on a 3rd-century mosaic
  • Naenia, goddess of funerary lament.
  • Nascio, personification of the act of birth.
  • Necessitas, goddess of destiny, the Roman equivalent of Ananke.
  • Nemesis, goddess of revenge (Greek), adopted as an Imperial deity of retribution.
  • Neptune, god of the sea, earthquakes, and horses, and one of the Dii Consentes. Greek equivalent is Poseidon.
  • Nerio, ancient war goddess and the personification of valor. The consort of Mars.
  • Neverita, presumed a goddess, and associated with Consus and Neptune in the Etrusco-Roman zodiac of Martianus Capella but otherwise unknown.[37]
  • Nixi, also di nixi, dii nixi, or Nixae, goddesses of childbirth.
  • Nona, minor goddess, one of the Parcae (Roman equivalent of the Moirai). The spinner of the thread of life, her Greek equivalent was Clotho.
  • Nortia a Roman-adopted Etruscan goddess of fate, destiny, and chance from the city of Volsinii, where a nail was driven into a wall of her temple as part a new-year ceremony.
  • Nox, goddess of night, derived from the Greek Nyx.

O

  • Ops or Opis, goddess of resources or plenty.
  • Orcus, a god of the underworld and punisher of broken oaths.

P

Aeneas and the Penates, from a 4th-century manuscript
Aeneas and the Penates, from a 4th-century manuscript
  • Penates or Di Penates, household gods.
  • Picumnus, minor god of fertility, agriculture, matrimony, infants and children.
  • Picus, Italic woodpecker god with oracular powers.
  • Pietas, goddess of duty; personification of the Roman virtue pietas.
  • Pilumnus, minor guardian god, concerned with the protection of infants at birth.
  • Pluto, Greek Plouton, a name for the ruler of the dead popularized through the mystery religions and Greek philosophy, sometimes used in Latin literature and identified with Dis pater or Orcus.
  • Poena, goddess of punishment.
  • Pomona, goddess of fruit trees, gardens and orchards; assigned a flamen minor.
  • Porrima, goddess of the future. Also called Antevorta. One of the Carmentes and the Camenae.
  • Portunus, god of keys, doors, and livestock, he was assigned a flamen minor.
  • Postverta or Prorsa Postverta, goddess of childbirth and the past, one of the two Carmentes (other being Porrima).
  • Priapus, imported phallic guardian of gardens.
  • Proserpina, Queen of the Dead and a grain-goddess, the Roman equivalent of the Greek Persephone.
  • Providentia, goddess of forethought.
  • Pudicitia, goddess and personification of chastity, one of the Roman virtues. Her Greek equivalent was Aidôs.

Q

  • Querquetulanae, nymphs of the oak.
  • Quirinus, Sabine god identified with Mars; Romulus, the founder of Rome, was deified as Quirinus after his death. Quirinus was a war god and a god of the Roman people and state, and was assigned a flamen maior; he was one of the Archaic Triad gods.
  • Quiritis, goddess of motherhood. Originally Sabine or pre-Roman, she was later equated with Juno.

R

  • Robigo or Robigus, a god or goddess who personified grain disease and protected crops.
  • Roma, personification of the Roman state.
  • Rumina, goddess who protected breastfeeding mothers.

S

Sol Invictus, or Christ depicted in his guise. 3rd century AD
Sol Invictus, or Christ depicted in his guise. 3rd century AD

T

  • Talasius, a god of marriage
  • Tellumo or Tellurus, male counterpart of Tellus.
  • Tempestas, a goddess of storms or sudden weather, usually plural as the Tempestates
  • Terra Mater or Tellus, goddess of the earth and land. The Greek equivalent is Gaea, mother of titans, consort of Caelus (Uranus).
  • Terminus, the rustic god of boundaries.
  • Tiberinus, river god; deity of the Tiber river.
  • Tibertus, god of the river Anio, a tributary of the Tiber.
  • Tranquillitas, goddess of peace and tranquility.
  • Trivia, goddess of crossroads and magic, equated with Hecate.

V

Venus, Vulcan, Mars, and Cupid on a wall painting from Pompeii
Venus, Vulcan, Mars, and Cupid on a wall painting from Pompeii
  • Vacuna, ancient Sabine goddess of rest after harvest who protected the farmers' sheep; later identified with Nike and worshipped as a war goddess.
  • Vagitanus, or Vaticanus, opens the newborn's mouth for its first cry.
  • Vediovus or Veiovis, obscure god, a sort of anti-Jupiter, as the meaning of his name suggests. May be a god of the underworld.
  • Venilia or Venelia, sea goddess, wife of Neptune or Faunus.
  • Venti, the winds, equivalent to the Greek Anemoi: North wind Aquilo(n) or Septentrio (Greek Boreas); South wind Auster (Greek Notus); East wind Vulturnus (Eurus); West wind Favonius (Zephyrus); Northwest wind Caurus or Corus (see minor winds).
  • Venus, goddess of love, beauty, sexuality, and gardens; mother of the founding hero Aeneas; one of the Dii Consentes.
  • Veritas, goddess and personification of the Roman virtue of veritas or truth.
  • Verminus, god of cattle worms.
  • Vertumnus, Vortumnus or Vertimnus, god of the seasons, and of gardens and fruit trees.
  • Vesta, goddess of the hearth, the Roman state, and the sacred fire; one of the Dii Consentes.
  • Vica Pota, goddess of victory and competitions.
  • Victoria, goddess of victory.
  • Viduus, god who separated the soul and body after death.
  • Virbius, a forest god, the reborn Hippolytus.
  • Virtus, god or goddess of military strength, personification of the Roman virtue of virtus.
  • Volturnus, god of water, was assigned a flamen minor. Not to be confused with Vulturnus.
  • Voluptas, goddess of pleasure.
  • Vulcan, god of the forge, fire, and blacksmiths, husband to Venus, and one of the Dii Consentes, was assigned a flamen minor.

Discover more about Alphabetical list related topics

Africa (Roman province)

Africa (Roman province)

Africa was a Roman province on the northern African coast that was established in 146 BC following the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War. It roughly comprised the territory of present-day Tunisia, the northeast of Algeria, and the coast of western Libya along the Gulf of Sirte. The territory was originally inhabited by Berber people, known in Latin as Mauri indigenous to all of North Africa west of Egypt; in the 9th century BC, Phoenicians built settlements along the Mediterranean Sea to facilitate shipping, of which Carthage rose to dominance in the 8th century BC until its conquest by the Roman Republic.

Abundantia

Abundantia

In ancient Roman religion, Abundantia, also called Abundita or Copia, was a divine personification of abundance and prosperity. The name Abundantia means plenty or riches. This name is fitting as Abundantia was a goddess of abundance, money-flow, prosperity, fortune, valuables, and success. She would help protect your savings and investments. Abundantia would even assist someone with major purchases. She was among the embodiments of virtues in religious propaganda that cast the emperor as the ensurer of "Golden Age" conditions. Abundantia thus figures in art, cult, and literature, but has little mythology as such. She may have survived in some form in Roman Gaul and medieval France. Abundantia would carry a cornucopia that was filled with grain and coins. She would occasionally leave some of her grain or money at someone's house as a gift.

Acca Larentia

Acca Larentia

Acca Larentia or Acca Larentina was a mythical woman, later goddess of fertility, in Roman mythology whose festival, the Larentalia, was celebrated on December 23.

Larentalia

Larentalia

The Roman festival of Larentalia was held on 23 December but was ordered to be observed twice a year by Augustus; by some supposed to be in honour of the Lares, a kind of domestic genii, or divinities, worshipped in houses, and esteemed the guardians and protectors of families, supposed to reside in chimney-corners. Others have attributed this feast in honour of Acca Larentia, the nurse of Romulus and Remus, and wife of Faustulus. During this festival, offerings were made to the dead, usually at altars dedicated to Acca Larentia. A sacrifice was typically offered in the Velabrum, the spot where Acca Larentia is buried. Larentalia was part of a series of ancient Roman festivals and holidays celebrating the end of the old year and the start of the new.

Celtic mythology

Celtic mythology

Celtic mythology is the body of myths belonging to the Celtic peoples. Like other Iron Age Europeans, Celtic peoples followed a polytheistic religion, having many gods and goddesses. The mythologies of continental Celtic peoples, such as the Gauls and Celtiberians, did not survive their conquest by the Roman Empire, the loss of their Celtic languages and their subsequent conversion to Christianity. Only remnants are found in Greco-Roman sources and archaeology. Most surviving Celtic mythology belongs to the Insular Celtic peoples. They preserved some of their myths in oral lore, which were eventually written down by Christian scribes in the Middle Ages. Irish mythology has the largest written body of myths, followed by Welsh mythology.

Aequitas

Aequitas

Aequitas is the Latin concept of justice, equality, conformity, symmetry, or fairness. It is the origin of the English word "equity". In ancient Rome, it could refer to either the legal concept of equity, or fairness between individuals.

Aeternitas

Aeternitas

In ancient Roman religion, Aeternitas was the divine personification of eternity. She was particularly associated with Imperial cult as a virtue of the deified emperor (divus). The religious maintenance of abstract deities such as Aeternitas was characteristic of official Roman cult from the time of the Julio-Claudians to the Severans.

Aion (deity)

Aion (deity)

Aion is a Hellenistic deity associated with time, the orb or circle encompassing the universe, and the zodiac.

Aevum

Aevum

In scholastic philosophy, the aevum is the temporal mode of existence experienced by angels and by the saints in heaven. In some ways, it is a state that logically lies between the eternity (timelessness) of God and the temporal experience of material beings. It is sometimes referred to as "improper eternity".

Aius Locutius

Aius Locutius

Aius Locutius or Aius Loquens, was a Roman deity or numen associated with the Gallic invasions of Rome during the early 4th century BC.

Gauls

Gauls

The Gauls were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period. Their homeland was known as Gaul (Gallia). They spoke Gaulish, a continental Celtic language.

Lucus

Lucus

In ancient Roman religion, a lūcus is a sacred grove.

Source: "List of Roman deities", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 15th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_deities.

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See also

For minor deities known for a single function or by a single name, see:

A number of figures from Greek mythology who were not part of Roman religious practice appear in Latin mythological narratives and as poetic allusions; for these names, see:

References
  1. ^ Robert Schilling, "Roman Gods," Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), pp. 75 online and 77 (note 49). Unless otherwise noted, citations of primary sources are Schilling's.
  2. ^ Hendrik H.J. Brouwer, Bona Dea: The Sources and a Description of the Cult pp. 245–246.
  3. ^ Apuleius, Metamorphoses 11.2.
  4. ^ Benko, Stephen, The virgin goddess: studies in the pagan and Christian roots of mariology, Brill, 2004, pp. 112–114: see also pp. 31, 51.
  5. ^ CIL 03, 11008"A soldier of the Legio I Adiutrix [dedicated this] to the Unconquered God" (Deo Invicto / Ulpius Sabinus / miles legio/nis primae / (A)diutricis).
  6. ^ Steven Ernst Hijmans, Sol: The Sun in the Art and Religions of Rome (diss., University of Groningen 2009), p. 18, with citations from the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum.
  7. ^ Lawrence Richardson, A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 156–157.
  8. ^ R.W. Davies, "The Training Grounds of the Roman Cavalry," Archaeological Journal 125 (1968), p. 73 et passim.
  9. ^ Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.12.16–33. Cited in H.H.J. Brouwer, Bona Dea: The Sources and a Description of the Cult (Brill, 1989), pp. 240, 241.
  10. ^ Varro, Divine Antiquities, book 5, frg. 65; see also Livy 1.32.9; Paulus apud Festus, p. 27; Servius Danielis, note to Aeneid 5.54; Lactantius Placidus, note to Statius, Theb. 4.459–60.
  11. ^ Livy, 1.38.7, 1.55.1–6.
  12. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus 6.17.2
  13. ^ Livy, 22.10.9.
  14. ^ Varro, De re rustica 1.1.4: "eos urbanos, quorum imagines ad forum auratae stant, sex mares et feminae totidem.
  15. ^ Ennius, Annales frg. 62, in J. Vahlen, Ennianae Poesis Reliquiae (Leipzig, 1903, 2nd ed.). Ennius's list appears in poetic form, and the word order may be dictated by the metrical constraints of dactylic hexameter.
  16. ^ "Flamen | Encyclopedia.com".
  17. ^ Forsythe, Gary, A Critical History of Early Rome: From Prehistory to the First Punic War, University of California Press, August, 2006
  18. ^ As recorded by Augustine of Hippo, De civitate Dei 7.2.
  19. ^ Varro, De Lingua Latina 5.74
  20. ^ Or Novensiles: the spelling -d- for -l- is characteristic of the Sabine language
  21. ^ For Fides, see also Semo Sancus or Dius Fidius.
  22. ^ Woodard, Roger D. Indo-European Sacred Space: Vedic and Roman cult. p 184.
  23. ^ Varro. De lingua latina. 5.68.
  24. ^ Rehak, Paul (2006). Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the northern Campus Martius. University of Wisconsin Press. p 94.
  25. ^ e quis nonnulla nomina in utraque lingua habent radices, ut arbores quae in confinio natae in utroque agro serpunt: potest enim Saturnus hic de alia causa esse dictus atque in Sabinis, et sic Diana.
  26. ^ Clark, Anna. (2007). Divine Qualities: Cult and community in republican Rome. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp 37–38;
    Dench, Emma. (2005). Romulus' Asylum: Roman Identities from the Age of Alexander to the Age of Hadrian. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. pp 317–318.
  27. ^ Fowler, W.W. (1922). The Religious Experience of the Roman People. London, UK. p 108.
  28. ^ Tatius is said by Varro to have dedicated altars to "Ops, Flora, Vediovis, and Saturn; to Sol, Luna, Vulcan, and Summanus; and likewise to Larunda, Terminus, Quirinus, Vortumnus, the Lares, Diana, and Lucina."
  29. ^ W.H. Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie (Leipzig: Teubner, 1890–94), vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 187–233.
  30. ^ Ovid, Fasti 2.67 and 6.105 (1988 Teubner edition).
  31. ^ Ovid, Fasti 6.106.
  32. ^ This depends on a proposed emendation of Aternus to Alernus in an entry from Festus, p. 83 in the edition of Lindsay. At Fasti 2.67, a reading of Avernus, though possible, makes no geographical sense. See discussion of this deity by Matthew Robinson, A Commentary on Ovid's Fasti, Book 2 (Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 100–101.
  33. ^ As noted by Robinson, Commentary, p. 101; Georges Dumézil, Fêtes romaines d'été et d'automne (1975), pp. 225ff., taking the name as Helernus in association with Latin holus, holera, "vegetables." The risks and "excessive fluidity" inherent in Dumézil's reconstructions of lost mythologies were noted by Robert Schilling, "The Religion of the Roman Republic: A Review of Recent Studies," in Roman and European Mythologies, pp. 87–88, and specifically in regard to the myth of Carna as a context for the supposed Helernus.
  34. ^ Dea feminarum: Macrobius, Saturnalia I.12.28.
  35. ^ Marko Marinčič, "Roman Archaeology in Vergil's Arcadia (Vergil Eclogue 4; Aeneid 8; Livy 1.7), in Clio and the Poets: Augustan Poetry and the Traditions of Ancient Historiography (Brill, 2002), p. 158.
  36. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 220; compare Prometheus.
  37. ^ de Grummond, N. T., and Simon, E., (Editors) The religion of the Etruscans, University of Texas Press, 2006, p.200

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